The Beginning of a Legend

"I'm going to put Harry to bed," Lily Potter told her husband, James. She picked up the baby on the floor.

"Alright," James said. "Can you manage, or do you need my help?" he asked playfully.

She mock-scowled. "I'm not a completely incompetent mother, you know." James smirked and kissed her on the cheek. "Hmm, hurry back, then." "Maybe I won't even come back down," she called as she ascended the stairs. Harry yawned and she smiled.

When she got nursery she started humming. Harry was asleep by the time she laid him in his crib. She bent over to kiss his forehead before turning to go back downstairs. When she got down there she saw James walking towards the window at the front of the house.

"What is it?" she asked.

He stopped and turned to look at her. "I thought I heard the gate," he said.

"Peter probably forgot something and is coming to get it."

"Maybe, but I don't know what he could have left."

"Maybe it was the wind."

"Maybe..." James went to look out the window. His eyes went wide. "Lily, take Harry and run!"

Lily looked at him questioningly.

"It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

She was terrified. She ran from the room, stumbling over one of Harry's toys on the way out. She was halfway up the stairs before she heard the door burst open. She kept running. James said something she couldn't hear and Voldemort laughed; that high-pitched cackle that made her shudder to hear it.

She got into the nursery and was running across the room to get Harry when she heard Voldemort's voice yelling something she couldn't fully understand, but the flash of green and whoosh of air told her what he had said. The house suddenly fell completely silent, save for the frantic pounding of her own heart. She wasn't moving. Her mind didn't want to process the fact that she should, before it was too late. It was still trying to figure out what had just happened. James, her husband, one of the two people she valued more than life itself, was dead. Gone. She just couldn't believe it.

"James..." she whispered. Tears were forming in her eyes.

There were footsteps on the stairs.

As soon as this was registered in her mind she turned back around and was about to pick Harry up when there came a voice.

"Hello." She spun around to see exactly who she expected, Voldemort. His eyes were glinting dangerously and he was smiling maliciously. He seemed to find this humorous.

"Move," he said.

"N-no."

"You're feeling brave? It's no use, you know; I killed him and I have no qualms about killing you. Move!"

She didn't. She panicked. "Not Harry," she sobbed, "Not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now!"

She still didn't move. "Not Harry! Please, no! Take me! Kill me instead!"

"Stand aside or I will!"

"Please! Have mercy! Have mercy!"

"I give no mercy." He raised his wand.

Lily lurched forward. "No!" she shrieked, "Please! Ha-"

"Avada Kedavra!"

Her sentence was cut short and her lifeless body fell, gracelessly, into a heap on the floor. Harry was wailing.

Voldemort laughed, cold and cruel, as he stepped towards the crib that held the crying baby. He looked at Harry.
"You could never defeat me," he said. Then he let out a low snarl. "But I will not take that chance!" Harry's crying had ceased and he was looking at him with impossibly wide eyes. This seemed to anger the Dark Lord even more.

"Avada Kedavra!" he yelled, almost desperately. There was the rush of the air and the green flash, but something was wrong; the young Potter wasn't dead. In the split second after Voldemort realized this two things happened; Harry let out another cry as a lightning shaped cut appeared on his forehead, and he, himself, screamed as pain ripped through his body.

There was a light. A red light was glowing from an unknown source. The light flashed, suddenly unbelievably bright. There was a sound akin to a bomb going off, and it was gone. When it left, it left behind it crumbling walls, a crying baby, and... nothing else. Nothing else was there, even Lord Voldemort.

This is how it began. This is how Harry Potter, who had never done anything extraordinary. Became The-Boy-Who-Lived, one of the most well known people in the wizarding world. It is also how so many lonely nights, so much harsh treatment, and so many misunderstandings were caused. It is the beginning of the legend.